Profile
Gillian Whitebread has over 20 years of experience in HR leadership roles. She has worked across a number of industries including Health Services, HR Professional Services, Financial Services and Retail. For the last five years, Gillian was the Chief Human Resources Officer of TELUS Health. Gillian joined TELUS Health through the LifeWorks/Morneau Shepell acquisition, where she held the position of CHRO since 2018. At TELUS Health, Gillian was accountable for developing and executing the global people strategy to enable TELUS Health’s business growth while fostering an inclusive, purpose driven culture centred around total wellbeing. As CHRO, she was also a TELUS Health client, leveraging TELUS Health’s products and services to deliver best in class employee experiences to promote team members’ wellbeing and enable them to be brand ambassadors.
For over 20 years, Gillian has enabled businesses by building diverse high performing teams; fostering inclusive workplaces; focusing on the top people priorities to enable the business strategy; and designing engaging, brand aligned employee experiences. Immediately prior to joining TELUS Health, Gillian was a member of the Human Resources Management Committee at CIBC and held the positions of Vice-President, Human Resources, Technology and Operations and Vice-President Executive Talent Management and Workforce Analytics. During this time, she was also accountable for leading the Bank's Diversity and Inclusion Team, a period during which CIBC was named one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers and was recognized for its commitment to Gender Diversity by being included in Bloomberg's Gender Equality Index.
Gillian graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce and holds an MBA with distinction from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a Certified HR Leader and Certified HR Professional designation from the Human Resources Professionals Association. She has also completed the Board Compensation Committee Programs at both Rotman and Harvard Business Schools. Gillian’s community involvement includes sitting on the Board of Trustees of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where she also chairs the Human Resources Committee, and chairing the People & Culture Committee and Board of Governors at Crescent School. Gillian is also a contract professor in the Post Graduate HR Program at Centennial College.